Hey Survivor Blog faithful! Welcome back to your favorite blog in the world! SURVIVOR BLOG and this week is sure to NOT disappoint.

With Bloggergal out playing with all of our favorite reality tv starts out in California, she has left the blogging responsibility up to BBBlogger. God help us everyone…

We start off with a show that promises a merge and a blindside (at least that is what the tv promos kept saying) so we start with the merge. Now I have to admit, they can only do so much to make it dramatic…but no more Bikal and Gota tribes. Let us introduce you to the new tribe, MALCOLM’S BACKWARDS MOTHER! Yes. Malcolm named the tribe Enil Edam. Why you might ask? Well it is because Enil Edam backwards is Madeline who is indeed Malcolm’s mother’s name. Egotistical? Clever? Dumb? I little of all 3 I would suggest! Anyway…for the rest of the show the tribe is basically Malcolm’s mom!

So the first challenge for individual immunity is a classic survivor eating competition. Basically a lot of fun faces, a lot of near vomit incidents and even a ship worm mustache on Andrea! When Jeff said that I physically laughed from my gut…so funny! The challenge ended with Cochran vs Malcolm. No one thought Cochran had a chance and he was no threat…well that boy can EAT! He ate his way straight to the first individual immunity. He won and then did a little rocky jog, hands in the air celebration dance. If anyone else would have done that it would have been GAME OVER for them…but when Cochran does it…it is cute and good for him. I think he is going to go far without winning anything else…ever!

So now everyone scrambles and plots. Alliance vs. Alliance. Lots of hatred for Phillip but it ends up being Sherri vs. Corinne with what it looks like is Erik is the swing vote…and Erik makes sure that Corinne is gone. The vote ends up being 7 to 5 and Corinne is left with a snuffed torch. I loved the smirks of Sherri (as if she had anything to do with it) and the worried face of Malcolm.

So that is what I saw happen…what did you see? Is your favorite still in or are you sad because they too are gone.

Only 11 are left…tell us what you are loving about this season so far and what you are not.

Here is next week’s preview….

Looks like Malcolm is not happy that he was not featured ENOUGH last weekend and WAIT A SECOND…did that preview actually show Andrea starting to develop feelings for Eddie. I think I might be a little jealous. Andrea sure is a cutie! (BBBlogger note…call me cutie…I am waiting by my cell!)

This week the Bold and Beautiful tribe continued to dominate on Survivor. It was so sad for me to watch the other tribe give 100% and yet fall short both times. Much ado was made about Phillip thinking he was stronger than he is. Of course, if Phillip’s tribe had kept Matt things may have been different.

Really all that’s going on now on the show is everyone waiting around trying to survive until they are merged into one tribe. The Favorites are still staying loyal to each other and cutting down the Fans one by one. This week saw the removal of Julia. Women are becoming extinct on this year’s Survivor!

It will be interesting to see if some of the fans are able to strike up an alliance with some of the Favorites. At this point, nothing is pointing in that direction.

I was confused about one part last night. Phillip spoke to Julia. Julia ran to Dawn and told her what Phillip said, but why did Dawn run back to Phillip to tell him what Julia told her? Help me out on that one. Thanks!

So next week is Reality Rally weekend in Temecula California. I will try to post some pictures to our Facebook page. Also if you go to the website Reality Rally and click on 2013 Reality Stars, you will see which stars will be attending. If you submit a question through the comments of this blog, I’ll do my best to ask the star and report back to you! Of course, any contestant who is currently appearing on a show, i.e., Phillip is not allowed to comment on anything that has to do with that show.

There are a number of items up for auction, please check that out through the Reality Rally Auction page. Definitely some fun mementos up for grabs!

Hopefully BBBlogger will fill in for me next week, if not see you in two weeks!

If you live in southern California and want to attend Reality Rally, email me. I have some free tickets available.

Let me start out by saying, I am very sorry I didn’t get over here to approve your comments! I usually get an email telling me that comments are waiting for approval, but I didn’t. Once I approve your first comment, all your other comments will go through without a wait. I’ll make sure to stop here more often.

Now that we are past all that Brandon nonsense, maybe we can get back to playing the game of Survivor? To shake things up we have new tribes! After crushing an egg with dye in it, the players were re-divided. We have Fans Reynold, Eddie and Sherri combined with Favorites Malcolm, Andrea, Brenda and Erik (Gota). The other team has Favorites Phillip, Corinne, Cochran and Dawn with Fans Matt, Michael and Julia (Bikal). Either way you look at it, the Favorites are the majority at this point on both tribes. I would have loved for Reynold and Eddie to be separated, but that didn’t happen.

Cochran made a comment that the other tribe was like “The Bold and the Beautiful”. Good one, Cochran. Why does that consistently happen?

The Immunity Challenge involved a lot of strength and a bit of brains. Two members of each tribe had to push an enormous wood block across a playing field. Up first for Bikal was Phillip and Julia. Julia was absolutely no help to Phillip and they immediately became the underdogs in this comp. Let’s face it, the other tribe is loaded with strong players. Things never changed and Gota easily took this challenge. The new Bikal tribe had to vote off a member.

There was no doubt that a Fan would be going home since the Favorites have the majority. Phillip was pushing for Julia to go since she is a weak player, but it ends up being Matt that is voted off. I have absolutely no reason why they did that. They definitely needed Matt to help win challenges.

Meanwhile over at Gota, there are TWO Hidden Immunity Idols floating around since both Malcolm and Reynold have one. That’s going to make for some interesting tribal council moments.

Last night’s Survivor episode…or as I’m calling it…The Brandon Hantz show made for good TV…I guess. IMO, Brandon had the whole thing planned from the very beginning, hence the comments about burning down the shelter, peeing in the rice, etc. I’ve watched the social media that the Hantz family releases and I really believe that the whole lot of them are to Reality TV what Howard Stern is to shock radio. I think Brandon went on the show to keep the Hantz name fresh in everyone’s mind so that they can continue to brand themselves as the “evil Hantz family”. It was good to see Phillip hold his ground and not get sucked in to the nonsense.

Other than that, there really wasn’t too much else going on last night. I was rooting for the Fans in the Reward Challenge. I feel really bad for that group. Sherri really lost that challenge for the Fans because she couldn’t get a coconut into the net for anything. That slowed down Phillip’s net weight and gave him the advantage.

Annoyingly, Reynold was the one to find the HII making it his second find. Did Survivor put it in the same place? He tells Eddie, but no one else. Of course, Eddie and Reynold were laying in the shelter and not looking for the Idol, hmmm Fans….I wonder why?

As the Fans tribe gets picked off one by one, we get closer and closer to a merge. Otherwise, this season is going to end up being the Favorites versus the Favorites. Shamar has been annoying everyone both in his tribe and here at home for weeks now, but last night he finally bid adieu. He ended up getting something in his eye and scratching his cornea. Since it could potentially effect his vision, he was pulled from the game. I think this was to the relief of Shamar, his tribe and all of America. Watching him laying around and hearing him boss the others into bring him his rice was just too much. I feel much compassion for Shamar and I hope he gets the help he needs.

However prior to Shamar leaving the game, he does participate in this week’s Reward challenge. Unlike last week, the Reward challenge and the Immunity challenge are split up. As with most of the challenges so far this season, the competition is very close. At the end of this challenge, all competitors must stand on a little ledge in the water together. Shamar makes the mistake of thinking it would be better for him to be on all fours. I think he really just couldn’t stand up and balance, but truthfully this killed the chances of the Fans. No way could they easily fit on the platform with Shamar taking up so much space. The Favorites win another challenge.

The Immunity challenge once again involves swimming and throwing. Aren’t there any other types of challenges? Anyway, Favorites take an early lead. It looks like the Fans don’t have any chance of winning this but in the final part when Reynold must throw bags and knock down blocks, he does an impressive job and catches up…almost. Philip doesn’t lose his cool and is able to win by a block or two. Once again the Favorites are safe from Tribal.

Back at the Fans camp, Matt approaches Michael with the idea of breaking the alliance to vote off Laura. She is clearly the weakest link on the tribe, but it means losing a vote in favor of keeping stronger in challenges. Michael isn’t sure, but does see the logic in this. Julia and Sherri aren’t too sure this is the right thing to do. They see what is going on here…females are now being picked off one by one. Matt tells Reynold of the plan to vote of Laura, but Reynold isn’t believing him. At tribal, Reynold plays his HII. The jokes on Reynold because everyone, except for Laura votes Laura out.

I think this was the right thing to do. They need to keep the tribe strong. Voting off the strong players is just going to lead to them all being voted off eventually. Hopefully, they can get their act together and WIN something so that we can get some drama going over in the Favorites camp. Speaking of drama, did you watch next week’s preview? Brandon has a hissy fit and upends the rice into the sand. Maybe Survivor is finally starting to come alive? Stay tuned…Bloggergal

So, I surprised my husband with tickets for the spring training baseball game between the Phillies and the Yankees in Clearwater Florida. I was looking forward to some fun in the sun. Unfortunately, the sun was somewhere lost behind the rain clouds. We still had a good trip. We were lucky. The rain stopped and we were able to see the whole game. On the whole, the rain didn’t ruin the trip. However, as soon as I arrived home, I got sick. I’ve been in bed for the last three days. I watched Survivor, but I couldn’t get myself to type. That brings me to today, Saturday. Sorry this is so late, but I hope I hear from you!

The major drama at the Fan’s camp is Shamar’s anger. I don’t even know how to comment about this. I feel for this veteran that has probably seen and done a lot in his life. I’m confused as to what he’s doing on Survivor. Is Survivor taking advantage of him for TV ratings? Is he pretending to be a veteran with PTSD because if he’s really having issues, then seriously, he shouldn’t be on Survivor. That whole “I’m gonna quit because I’m not in a happy place” was all BS. Hey, it did take up a few minutes of air time though, didn’t it? I look forward to seeing him together with Philip “the Specialist” Sheppard. That should be interesting.

I’m always amused by the HII hunt. You would think that as soon as all contestants are placed in camp that the very first thing they would do is run off and look for the HII. Well, that doesn’t seem to happen. I use the word “seem” because what the heck do we know what’s really going on? After two weeks, we get a scene where Malcolm and Corinne are off hunting the HII and low and behold they find it. This puts Malcolm in a bit of a conundrum because he has to share this with Corinne. The other tribe members sense a closeness forming between the two and plan to target Corinne.

The Immunity Challenge once again involves swimming, diving, hauling and tossing. Fans and Favorites are neck and neck throughout the whole challenge. The toss is a bit of talent mixed with a lot of luck. Brandon pulls it off for the Favorites and they win Immunity for the second time in a row. Included with Immunity are comfort items–chairs, pillows, a blanket and a tarp.

The Fans are concerned about Reynold having the HII, so they decide to split the votes. The girls will vote for Hope and the guys will vote for Eddie. I’m not following their logic. Do they really think that Reynold will use the HII on someone other than himself? So anyway, at this point the vote will be tied three ways–Shamar, Hope and Eddie. Shamar hints to Hope that this is going to happen. If she had any smarts, she would realize what he was saying and vote off Eddie and save herself, but alas, she doesn’t get the hint. Instead, she goes back to camp and tells on Shamar. What an ass. For a second, it looks like Julia may convince Laura to jump ship and vote off Shamar, but it doesn’t happen. The vote comes back tied three ways. Everyone but the three re-vote and Hope is the next to have her torch extinguished. It’s really hard to feel sorry for her when she just sat around and let it happen.

Some quick comments:

The two “cool” guys on the Fans tribe actually converse about their gal getting voted off referring to it as “revenge of the nerds”. Really?

Sherri talks about how she is the owner of SEVERAL franchises and deals with a lot of employees under the age of 24. Am I correct that she used the word “brat”? I say every one of her franchise workers should call in sick on the same day.

Survivor continues to try to make Brandon out as a bad guy. He comments about his tribe going after him saying, “I’ll pee in the rice.” “I’ll pee in the beans.” “I’ll burn the shelter to the ground.” Oohh, those are some scary comments, but sorry, still not buying it Brandon.

It is interesting to see how words are misinterpreted. Hope says that Shamar told her she was 99% going, but what he really said was “It’s NOT 99%” You hear what you want to hear I guess. Since we don’t hear every single word, there is no way to tell if what the others are saying Shamar said is true.

I thought that last night’s hour of Survivor seemed to be only minutes. Does that mean it was good? I’m not sure. I didn’t think much happened last night, did it?

We started with a little bit of Brandon wanting to be like his uncle Russell, but falling a wee bit short! Dawn crying over…what the heck was Dawn crying about? Philip telling Brandon that he’s the CEO and Brandon is still middle management (LOL).

Over in the other camp, we have Shamar portrayed as a lazy loner. Notice I say portrayed. A lot of times on Survivor what we see is not really what is going on. However, since Reynold stated that Shamar was in the shelter for 19 hours of a day, I guess he might be kinda lazy!

The Immunity challenge this week involved diving into water to remove poles that would then release tubes. When all the tubes were released, those on shore had to pull their teammates in. The final part of the challenge was throwing the tubes onto poles. The first team to get three tubes onto poles wins. Just like last week, it will come down to throwing accuracy.

The Fans really mess this one up. Instead of taking turns diving to remove the poles, Sherri is coming up for air and then diving again. This is a bad strategy because she’s not getting a chance to recover. The Favorites are taking turns diving. There are three out on the water so this gives each of them a good chance to catch their breath before having to dive again. The Favorites recover all their tubes pretty quickly. The Fans are struggling. Finally Sherri is out of the water, but the other two can only hold their breath for what seems a second or two. Since the Favorites have a lot of time to throw the tubes, they take an early lead. They only need to get one more tube onto a pole when the Fans make somewhat of a comeback. However, Philip scores the winning point and the Favorites are safe this week. They also get to take fishing gear back to camp.

I like that the Fans lost this time. It keeps the game from being too one-sided and keeps everyone on their toes. There is, at least to us, a clear division at the Fans camp. The two couples are hanging out all on their own, giving the other six a safe majority. Reynold must have realized that because he goes on a hunt to find the HII. Miraculously (or conveniently) he finds it.

Reynold focuses on Shamar’s laziness to try to take the target off him and his allies. The way Shamar is portrayed, I wanted to see him out of there, but he is the strongest on the team. The six decide to target Allie because they feel she is the smartest of the four. As they are leaving for tribal, Julia notices a bulge in Reynold’s pants. Teehee…lots of jokes to go with this one! She tries to subtly tell her tribe mates about this during counsel and it forces Reynold to admit he has the HII. Sherri makes a point of saying that her vote will remain the same…determining Allie’s fate. BTW, does anyone else think that Sherri resembles an older Sandra Bullock?

Reynold doesn’t play the HII. The vote goes as expected. Six for Allie and four for Shamar. Reynold is still sitting pretty with his HII. The other two should be a bit worried.

Speaking of HII, what’s going on over at the Favorites camp? Philip is too busy giving his camp mates silly spy names and no one is looking for the HII. In case you don’t know, Philip has written a book titled “The Specialist: the Costa Rica Job”. This smart man is promoting his book without saying a word! I haven’t read it yet, but I’ll let you know what I think when I do.

Stay tuned all! Welcome back to the regulars and welcome to the newbies! Please realize that if you comment for the very first time, it has to be approved. Bloggergal

So what did you think of the premier of Survivor Fans versus Favorites? Personally, I’m conflicted because I love some of those Survivor Favorites, but I always cheer for the underdog, so I would love to see the Fans do well.

A competition was held immediately upon landing on Caramoan. The winning team gets flint and beans. It was a physical comp that just came down to who out-muscled who. The Fans have Shamar. He’s an ex-Marine and Iraq war veteran. He’s one big wall of muscle! He is also the Fan’s best hope when it comes to physical aggressive competitions. I think some of the other Fans were less aggressive just because it was their first competition and they may have felt a bit intimidated. The Favorites won this comp easily.

One highlight from brand new camp life was when Shamar first let the others try to make a fire while he sat back and watched. Finally, when they failed, he stepped in and saved the day. This solidified his place in the tribe. I really think the whole tribe would be crazy not to hang on to Shamar as he truly is a Survivor from his war days.

Of course, we have the first week scramble for alliances. The “pretty/popular” people on the Fan tribe have formed an alliance. Pretty and popular were their words not mine. They also quickly became two couples. Sigh…you may be pretty and popular, but you are playing Survivor stupid!

The first competition for Immunity involved climbing and throwing. All in all, a pretty easy first competition. It would all come down to speed and even more important accuracy. The end of the competition involved tossing bean bags into holes. The first team to get all their bags into the holes wins Immunity. I knew that the Favorites would pick Malcolm as their tosser because he excelled at this kind of thing last season. I really thought they had it in the bag, especially when they were able to take a slight lead. However, the Fans made a great comeback and their tosser was spot on. Fans win first Immunity! Actually, I cheered. I love when the underdogs do good. Also, I think an early win will give the Fans the confidence they need to make this Survivor a REAL competition.

The Favorites were broken up into multiple alliances with some Favs on more than one. So, in other words, it got a bit confusing since we don’t get to see everything. First name spoken to be voted off was Phillip. I was screaming “no” because Philip is a friend of mine now. Phillip enjoys playing Survivor and also playing to his audience! If you remember from Phillip’s first season, the first person voted off was Francesca. She and Phillip didn’t get along at all during that brief stint of hers. Phillip had a good time mispronouncing her name and calling her Francesqua. Well this time, she’s the one who mentions Phillips name first.

Phillip on the other hand aims straight for Francesca! His alliance seems way more solid with Dawn, Cochran, Malcolm, Corinne and Andrea. Andrea was lying to Francesca’s alliance and they figure it out, so their vote changes to her. In the end, Francesca is voted off by a vote of 6 to 4 with the four votes all going to Andrea.

Some random observations…Cochran seems more mature and savvy this time around. Dawn was always one of my favorites, so I’m glad to see her playing again. Brandon was pretty mellow this episode, but the preview of next week’s show puts him in a different light. Phillip is still sporting his now famous pink undies! Last time he wore them, I was saying “ewww”, but this time I just think its funny. Andrea is one tough Survivor competitor! Did you see Cochran’s sunburn? Big time OUCH!

Yesterday CBS announced the cast of Survivor: Caramoan, the second Fans versus Favorites series. You can watch the video above! It looks like an interesting mix of favorites including some that you probably loved and others that you probably hated. I’m excited to see Philip Sheppard on again mainly because I enjoyed spending time with him last year at Reality Rally and I can look at him in a whole different way this time. Of course, I’m sure everyone is thrilled to see Malcolm get a second chance. My guess is the target on his back is HUGE though. Some of the other returnees are getting a chance to right their stupid previous wrongs. We shall see if they learned anything the first time around!

Survivor: Caramoan begins on February 13th at 8:00 p.m. In the meanwhile, I’ll be blogging American Idol this season. I have to admit, I’m not a fan of any of the judges so we will see how it goes. Also, I feel that AI is getting a bit stale. Can this group breathe life into a dying beast? Watch (and read my blog) to see!

Welcome back all! I hope you are having a very Happy New Year! Bloggergal

Well, all that remains of Survivor Philippines is this recap. By now I’m sure you know that the sole Survivor is Denise Stapley. Here’s a quick review.

The final four contestants were Lisa, Denise, Malcolm and Mike Skupin. The reward challenge gave the winner an advantage for the final Immunity. Malcolm once again proved that he is a wiz at puzzles and wins the reward challenge and the advantage in the final challenge. It turns out that the advantage is that he is able to get a second chance. Let me explain. I always find this challenge nerve wracking. The contestants have to hold a series of pegs while balancing a little ball and of course, not dropping the ball. Each time period involves more pegs making the challenge harder and harder. You drop your ball, you lose…except for Malcolm. Since he won reward, he gets a second chance. This should hand him this challenge on a silver platter right? Wrong. Malcolm seems to have a bit of a tremor. He cannot keep that ball balanced. He drops it once and then yep, he drops it again. He is first out of this one. Denise is second to lose. Funny how the two that needed to win the most are the first two to lose, huh? It’s between Lisa and Skupin and Skupin eeks out the win. I was disappointed. I wanted to see Lisa win SOMETHING. Oh well.

So, with Skupin having Immunity the choice is between voting off Malcolm or voting off Denise. Lisa is convinced that the right thing to do is to vote off Malcolm because they don’t have a chance against him. Well truthfully, Lisa doesn’t have a chance at all so what did she care? Skupin is up in the air because he has a final three with Malcolm, but in the end chooses to take Denise to the final three. Oops! Also, I don’t know if it occurred to Malcolm and Denise that they could have voted Lisa, thus making the vote tied 2-2. In that case a final challenge is held to decide the winner. In the past, it has been a fire starting challenge–remember Bob Crowley’s season? Well, that’s neither here nor there because Malcolm is voted off and your final three will face the jury.

As usual, at the jury meeting some contestants are mature and handle it with aplomb and others show their feelings of regret and wishing they could get revenge. On the whole, it was a pretty tame jury. When the voting occurs, Lisa receives one vote and Skupin receives one vote and Denise wins with all the rest of the votes. Lisa wins the fan vote and $100,000.

This morning I was able to talk to Gillian Larson from Survivor Gabon about her latest experience at the Survivor Philippines finale. If you read my blogs regularly, you probably know that Gillian is the creator of Reality Rally, a fundraising event held yearly in Temecula California. The event involves Reality Stars and Gillian makes a point to meet each and every new one and get them involved in her amazing charity work. I’ll tell you more about that in a minute.

Gillian was able to meet this season’s Survivors. She makes a point of mentioning that she feels that this season’s Survivor was one of the best because the players were “honorable” with very little dramatics. She is correct in that this season the players played Survivor. Everyone was interested in the game and wanted to win and they sure played that way. Of course, it’s debatable about what the public really does want. Do they want to watch sincere players compete honestly and with dignity and maturity or do they want to see players make fools of themselves, for instance…well you know who!

Gillian had only good things to say about this new batch of reality stars. She was thrilled with Denise winning Survivor and felt that she was authentic. Gillian used the words “delightful” “real” and “engaging” to describe Survivor’s newest millionaire. All the other contestants were over any hard feelings they had on the show. They were interacting well with each other and seemed to be enjoying their brand new fan base.

Gillian specifically mentioned that Denise and Abi-Maria have no hard feelings toward each other. Gillian is from South Africa and she says she can understand what Abi-Maria is talking about when she speaks of cultural differences. She admits that she had to make adjustments here in America also. It’s good to know that Survivor helped Abi learn how to relate to us Americans!

One contestant that Gillian felt didn’t get to show his true self was Artis. She says he is very outgoing and funny–not at all as serious as he was portrayed on the show. Sometimes editing makes you look different than what you are.

Let me take a few moments to promote Reality Rally–an amazing event that will be held on the first weekend of April in Temecula California. Reality Rally raises funds for Michelle’s Place, a breast cancer resource center. Michelle died at age 26 due to a missed diagnosis at 19 years-old. Reality Rally is produced by over 600 people who see the value of being involved. The event is in tribute to Michelle, Jenn Lyon from Survivor Palua and Gillian’s brother who all died too young of cancer. We have all been touched by this dreaded disease. Reality stars from shows all over the world participate in Reality Rally to help fight this disease and help promote awareness. Since my sister is a breast cancer survivor, this charity is very close to my heart also.

The reality stars participate in an Amazing Race type event. This event gives fans a chance to not only meet and greet their favorite stars, but actually play a reality game with their favs! Already signed up for this year’s event is this season’s Survivor contestant Mike Skupin. A list of reality stars who have already signed up to attend Reality Rally can be seen by clicking here. By donating to your favorite stars page you help not only the star but more importantly Michelle’s Place and breast cancer patients and survivors. So please help by donating!

Gillian also tells me that she was able to get a piece of the ACTUAL SURVIVOR TRIBAL COUNCIL SET!!!! This ornate (and heavy!) piece of wood has been signed by a large number of this season’s contestants along with the Survivor set designer. This item will be auctioned off to benefit Michelle’s Place so keep checking the Reality Rally website or better yet–like it on Facebook so you are sure to know when this item is available. If you are a Survivor diehard fan, this item will be very cool to have!

If you are looking to have some fun, raise money for charity and soak in some southern California sun, please consider attending this year’s Reality Rally. Not only do you get to meet over 100 reality stars, but you even get to meet me! LOL What more can you ask for?

I’ve once again enjoyed hanging out with you here on the Survivor blog. I hope each and everyone of you have a wonderful winter, Holiday season and healthy happy start to 2013. I’ll be back here, along with BBBlogger in February for the next Survivor season of Fans versus Favorites. Until then…Bloggergal xxoo